Independent columnist Terence Blacker makes his Edinburgh Festival debut this week with a show of storytelling and songs. He reveals the pain and pleasure of creating a work for the stage rather than the page

One of life’s cruelest tricks is that, quite without warning, flirtatious behaviour which was once jolly and welcome can suddenly become grotesque and unattractive

It is dangerous to divide the world into the evil and the family-friendly

An awareness of the expectations of others is the enemy of storytelling

In the hysteria that followed Inverdale’s remark, it occurred to no one that perhaps he was making a sensible point about our looks-obsessed age

Reading her  despair, I’m aware of a niggling sense of personal shame

While the government's drive to improve education has transformedschools in London's inner-city, young people in rural areas are largely missed out

At last we have some codification of rock lyrics. But here's an alternative for you...

This gangster is treated with a strange amount of indulgence by the press and public

The role models here are ruthless figures like Sir Alan Sugar or the sneering bosses on Dragon's Den. There is, boys and girls, another way - one that shuns the limelight